27 July 2014

When I was a child our family often gathered to watch Hee Haw and The Waltons together. I've been watching The Waltons with a couple of our kids recently, thanks to Netflix. As for books, I love memoirs and autobiographies. After reading Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim, Mary McDonough's book Lessons from the Mountain came to my attention. The book happens to have reached me on two very different levels. The first, of course, has to do with the part of her life during which she played Erin Walton. The second has to do with her fight against Lupus. One of our children is fighting a neurological disorder, and is struggling with some additional issues also. I was fascinated by both parts of the book. The Waltons' cast seems to have been a rare one that really got along as if they were family and loved each other. Mary grew up on the show. Fortunately, she avoided many of the typical pitfalls that many actors succumb to. I'm glad I read her book. I'm also glad to be watching the show again. We are in season three of nine. I'd like to visit the Walton's Mountain Museum someday: http://www.waltonmuseum.org/